Uppsala limnologist author of a book about lakes and water courses

“The idea came to me several years ago, but it was only when I started cutting down on teaching and administration that I had the time. I like to write and it’s particularly enjoyable to write in Swedish. Otherwise there’s a lot of English in my job, and scientific journal articles also have a fairly standardized language and format.”

What is your book about?

“The book starts out with a lake from my childhood near my grandparents’ house in Småland. Trollagylet was the first lake I can remember, and in the 1960s it was already affected by acidification. The roach were gone, but we could still fish for perch. Today the landscape is quite similar, but the forests are exploited more intensively and open fields and meadows are becoming overgrown. The invasive plant Japanese knotweed is taking over the meadow between the lake and my grandparents’ house.

“The book is actually about lakes as a global phenomenon and about environmental changes that are causing some lakes to disappear and new ones to arise. For example, when lakes are drained to create agricultural land, and when permafrost thaws. China is currently planning the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant. Huge amounts of water will be dammed, which in turn will affect water flows downstream in India and Bangladesh. But I also go into how these changes affect biodiversity, and how the winter ice period is becoming ever shorter.”

This book is in a collection of essays with a serious undertone, but it doesn’t provide any ready-made solutions to how environmental problems should be addressed. Is it possible to reverse this trend?

“In the book, I put the facts on the table about lakes as ecosystems as well as how they change, and towards the end of the book, I put the argument that we cannot continue like this. We have solved at least some environmental problems regionally. Acidification was a major problem in Scandinavia and in some other places in the 1970s and 80s. Restoration was carried out, and we acted to limit emissions. But the problems are so very large-scale, and have to do with an increased population and an accelerated exploitation of natural resources.”

But there are also many light-hearted elements in the book, such as the chapter on the etymology of lake names.

“Yes, lakes have very amusing names sometimes. In Sweden, there are 57,000 named lakes. In total, we have about 100,000 lakes that cover at least one hectare, but many don’t have names on a map. There are over 70 different ways to say “lake” in Swedish, and two of the six most common are in our minority languages Finnish and Sami: järvi and jaure. But of the Swedish lake names, do you know what Vänern means? Or Mälaren? Or Sommen? These are some of our biggest lakes, but their names are so ancient that they cannot be understood in modern Swedish. And how did the lake Gubbenshöllsjön in northern Uppland province get its name?”

What do you hope the reader will feel after having read your book?

“I’d like my readers to become fascinated by lakes and learn about them and how they are affected by us humans. They are really just one of many examples of how different ecosystems in the world are changing today. In the book, I’ve also included some history of science that deals with how our understanding of lakes has developed; there I probably give some insights into the research. I don’t present any concrete solutions. I just want people to get some insights into how pervasive these global environmental changes are.

“When you’re out by a lake, I hope the book will stimulate you to think about, for example, the colour of the water or the vegetation along the shorelines. A bit of knowledge enriches your experience when you’re out in the natural environment, so I hope my book reaches a wide audience.”

Anneli Björkman